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Gastornis
Gastornis also known as Diatryma, was a prehistoric neognath bird, which was smaller and more robust than the terror bird featured in Sabre Tooth, lived 56-41 MYA, during the Paleocene and the early Eocene time period. Strangely, it's been questioned whether this animal was a herbivore or a carnivore or even an omnivore. Facts The Largest of birds in the Eocene, these creatures. Half a ton of feather and muscles and around 2.2 meters tall (larger then the average Human being) with a 45 cm skull and beak, shaped like a hatchet. Although the beak's tips weren't hooked, so this bird may have been a herbivore. When a female Gastornis had eggs, only one egg specifically, they had to wait two months for them to hatch. These birds were fiercely territorial and, when another Gastornis got to close…females moved to protect their nest. Since the great extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, birds were a success like mammals but, what is more, they grew big – big enough to take over the role of the large non-avian dinosaurs. Although Gastornis ''was the biggest land creature of it's time, it had a relatively short neck and thick legs, as opposed to terror birds of the later times; in fact, despite the superficial similarities, ''Gastornis' ''closest relatives were ducks and chickens, while the terror birds (phorusracids) are actually closely related to cranes, seriemas, etc. Put otherwise, ''Gastornis ''was most likely an ambush predator, while the terror birds had to actively run down their proportionally bigger prey. There are also theories that ''Gastornis might have actually been an omnivorous, or even a herbivorous bird, contrary to its depiction in the program. Portrayal in the Series Gastornis was portrayed as the apex predator of the Early Eocene rainforests. It only laid one egg at a time. Because it was so big and flightless, it made its nests on the ground, where its eggs and hatchlings were vulnerable to various predators. In the Walking With series ''Walking With Beasts New Dawn ''Gastornis was shown hunting small mammals, such as Leptictidium and Propalaeotherium, and it laid its single egg on the ground, just as the modern flightless birds do. This is why a swarm of giant ants was able to kill and eat the hatchling while the adult Gastornis ''hunted in another part of the forest. This event foreshadowed the eventual extinction of the ''Gastornis species overall: as the global jungle vanished, replaced by a new scrubland (and mangrove) habitat, the giant killer birds (such as Gastornis) vanished, to be replaced by new, mammalian carnivores, such as Hyaenodon ''and Andrewsarchus.'' Appearances in Other Media Video Games Read more at the Jurassic Park Wiki Read more at the Jurassic Park Builder Wiki Read more at the Scribblenauts Wiki Gastornis' design in WWB was reused for the video games Jurassic Park Builder and the Scribblenauts series. ''Ice Age'' Read more at the Ice Age Wiki The Diatryma from Ice Age shares the same colors as the WWB Gastornis, only arranged in a different pattern. Category:New Dawn animals Category:Cenozoic animals Category:Paleocene animals Category:Eocene Animals Category:Paleogene animals Category:Animals from Europe